Mayor Brown receives threat, suspicious powder

Letter sent to mayor's wife follows similar Bell incident

RACHEL GRAVES, Copyright 2001 Houston Chronicle

Published 5:30 am, Friday, November 2, 2001

A day after mayoral candidate Chris Bell's wife received an envelope containing light-colored powder and a threatening note, Mayor Lee Brown said Thursday he opened a similar letter addressed to his wife.

Houston police said Thursday they are treating the letter Brown received as a terrorist threat, although preliminary test results showed the powder is harmless.

Anthrax sent through the mail is believed to have killed at least three people and infected 13 more nationwide. A fourth death from anthrax is still being investigated. There has been no evidence of anthrax in Houston.

The letters were received by the Browns and Bells just days before Election Day on Tuesday.

They referred to putting four firefighters on a truck, a bitter point of contention between the Houston firefighters' union and the mayor. After more than a year of fighting with the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association Local 341, Brown recently announced an unfunded $17 million plan to immediately increase the number of firefighters on a truck from three to four.

The union has endorsed mayoral candidate Orlando Sanchez, the only one of three major candidates who did not get a similar letter.

The letters arrived at Bell's and Brown's homes Wednesday night. Brown's wife, Frances, thought the letter looked suspicious, so Lee Brown opened it. Brown, who gets a lot of hate mail, said he did not think anything of it until Thursday morning, when he heard the details of the letter received by the Bells.

Brown did not notice the powder, which was later spotted by police.

Although Brown did not recall the exact wording of the letter, he said it was similar to the one opened by Alison Bell.

That letter said: "Maybe four on a truck will help your family today. Take accion (sic)."

Brown said action was also misspelled in the letter he opened, as was his wife's name.

The mayor said he is accustomed to getting critical mail but objected to its being sent to his wife.

All three major candidates said they hope the culprit is found quickly.

"What they were trying to accomplish, I have no idea," Bell said. "I regard that as very serious and very threatening. It has no place in the campaign."

Sanchez also condemned the letters.

"I hope the Police Department employs every tool they have, including DNA fingerprinting, to find out who sent these letters and prosecute these people to the fullest extent of the law," he said.

Steve Williams, president of the firefighters' union, urged everyone to wait until the investigation is completed before pointing fingers.

The letters were at the city's health department for further testing Thursday and then were to be examined by the police, said Lt. Greg Neely of the Houston Police Department's homicide division. He said the crime could result in a charge as serious as a third-degree felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.